The nccrc's mission

 

To ensure individuals have a right to effective counsel when facing the loss of their basic human needs in the civil legal system.  We work nationally to accomplish this by:

  • Envisioning and advocating for the right to counsel:
 
    • Supporting, connecting, and coordinating federal, state, and local efforts to a) enact, litigate, implement, and evaluate right to counsel programs; and b) engage in social science research projects that demonstrate the impact of counsel;
    • Establishing guidelines and best practices;
    • Identifying and supporting a variety of funding sources for the right to counsel;
    • Growing and diversifying our participant and partner base so as to help grow the larger national movement;
    • Responding to dangers to the movement while facilitating work to plan its future.
 
  • Educating about the right to counsel:
 
    • Tracking and reporting on right to counsel litigation, legislation, education, and social science research efforts around the country;
    • Maintaining a comprehensive right to counsel research repository and status map;
    • Planning and/or presenting at convenings, educational sessions, and public events, and speaking with the media, in order to raise awareness / understanding of, and enthusiasm for, the right to counsel.

 

Our vision and reasons for engaging in this work

 

We envision a world where all 50 states and the District of Columbia adopt and effectively implement an enforceable right to high-quality, fully funded, client-directed counsel for people in civil cases who are facing the loss of their basic human needs, thus moving towards reversing systemic disempowerment and unfairness, restoring faith in the system, and advancing equal justice.  

 

We engage in this work because the right to full representation by an attorney is an evidence-based approach that promotes actual systems change.  It enables people to enforce their rights and protect their basic human needs while helping to effectuate the laws that have been passed to protect people.  It helps to redistribute power.  It works towards restoring confidence in the justice system.  It advances race equity by providing one form of relief to Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities disproportionately harmed by, and entangled in, a civil justice system rooted in systemic racism.  And it rejects the scarcity-based operations of legal services while advancing long-term fiscal responsibility.  

The NCCRC at a glance

 

The NCCRC, established in 2003 and funded in part by the Public Justice Center (PJC), has over 600 participants and partners in 45 states (see our interactive map's "NCCRC Presence" view to see where they are), all of whom are committed to exploring how the right to counsel in civil cases can best be advanced in their particular jurisdiction.

 

To learn more about the recent work that NCCRC has been involved with, check out our 20th Anniversary Report. For the NCCRC's history, check out this Retrospective on the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, penned by John Pollock and Mary Deutsch Schneider for the NCCRC's 10th Anniversary. 

 

The NCCRC in the media

 

The NCCRC has been featured in major press outlets, including City Limits, Bloomberg Cities, Forbes, Indiana Lawyer, Next City, Detroit News, and the Wall Street Journal.  


Since COVID-19, we have managed to keep the press focused on the issue in stories in Marketplace (twice), CNBC, Washington Post, Business Journal, Law360, TruthoutMarketWatchNew Republic, The Appeal, Law360, and Buzzfeed News, US News, The Hill, Seattle Times, Business Insider, Public News Service, and Connecticut MirrorWe co-authored an article in Newsweek and authored pieces in The Hill and The Appeal about the steps states must take to end the COVID-19 eviction crisis, including the right to counsel.

 

Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, ABC News, Christian Science Monitor, Fast Company, International Business Times, Bloomberg Cities, Brooklyn Eagle, Statehouse Report (South Carolina), Rock Hill Herald (South Carolina), Alexandria Gazette, and KTVU Fox2 (San Francisco) have all flagged or utilized the eviction prediction tool we helped Stout develop.


Staff 

 

John Pollock

Coordinator

 

JP photo 2021

John Pollock (he/him) has been the Coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel since 2009. He was the recipient of NLADA's 2018 Innovations in Civil Justice Award.  He is the author of a number of law review articles, including Appointment of Counsel for Civil Litigants: A Judicial Path to Ensuring the Fair and Ethical Administration of Justice, Court Review, Vol. 56 Issue 1 (2020), The Case Against Case-By-Case: Courts Identifying Categorical Rights to Counsel in Basic Human Needs Civil Cases, 61 Drake L.J. 763 (Spring 2013), and It’s Not Triage if the Patient Bleeds Out161 U. Penn. L.R. 40 (2012). Previously, he was the Enforcement Director at the Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, and before that was a fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law and Wesleyan University.


Maria Roumiantseva

Associate Coordinator

 

 

Maria Roumiantseva photo

Maria Roumiantseva (she/her) is the NCCRC's Associate Coordinator. Before joining the NCCRC in February 2020, Maria was a Staff Attorney at Legal Services of Central New York, Inc. (LSCNY), primarily representing clients facing eviction proceedings.  Maria began her legal career as a Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice in Brooklyn, New York, where she represented children involved with the child welfare system. Maria graduated from Montclair State University and the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. She is the author of A Nationwide Movement: The Right to Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction Proceedings, Seton Hall Law Review, Vol.52, Iss.5 (2022), and Patching the Patchwork: Moving the Civil Right to Counsel Forward With Key DataJournal of Civil Rights and Economic Development, Vol. 36, Iss. 2 (2022).  

 

Amanda Insalaco

Legal Research and Legislative Specialist 

Amanda Insalaco photo

Amanda Insalaco is the NCCRC's Legal Research and Legislative Specialist. Before joining the NCCRC in February 2022, Amanda was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Center for Disability & Elder Law in Chicago, implementing the Housing Preservation Project and handling a variety of civil matters. As a Fellow, Amanda provided outreach presentations to hundreds of senior homeowners and trained and supervised pro bono volunteers who provided almost 400 legal services for estate planning, title searches, and property tax exemptions, with the goal of increasing housing stability, affordability, and the intergenerational transfer of wealth. Amanda graduated cum laude from DePaul University College of Law in May of 2019 and summa cum laude from Northern Illinois University in May of 2014 with a degree in Community Leadership and Civic Engagement. Amanda enjoys cooking for loved ones, and sewing.

 

Shuron Jones

Eviction Right to Counsel Enactment Specialist

S Jones Photo

Shuron Danielle Jones (she/her) is the NCCRC's Eviction RTC Enactment Specialist. After living under and being evicted by a slumlord, Shuron began organizing around housing with Homes for All - St. Louis in 2019. Her work focuses on the research, passage, implementation, and evaluation of legislation and policies that forward renter-worker protections. Shuron assisted in crafting the campaign around Right to Counsel in St. Louis City to the eventual passage of an ordinance around the policy in 2023. Shuron is also a public researcher, historian, and analyst, focusing on the work, lives, and organizing/advocacy/writings of radical and Queer Black Women in the Midwest from the 1970s. Shuron enjoys messing after her house plants; eating at her favorite vegan restaurants; shopping at thrift stores; and live music.

 

Andrew Ashbrook

Eviction Right to Counsel Implementation Specialist

A. Ashbrook Headshot

Andrew Ashbrook (he/him) is the NCCRC's Eviction RTC Implementation Specialist. Before joining the NCCRC in January 2024, Andrew was a Supervising Attorney on the Bronx Defenders’ Right to Counsel team. In that role, he supervised a team of attorneys representing tenants facing eviction in the Bronx through New York City’s Right to Counsel program. Before that position, Andrew represented tenants facing eviction in Manhattan at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House from 2018 through 2021 and in Ohio at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus from 2015 through 2018. Andrew graduated from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2014, the John Glenn College of Public Affairs with an MA in Public Policy in 2014, and the Ohio State University in 2011. Andrew enjoys reading, playing board games, and going on walks with his dog.

 

 

Steering Committee


Susanna Blankley

RTCNYC

Zoe Brennan-Krohn

ACLU

Russell Engler

New England Law | Boston

Pablo Estupiñan

SAJE

Debra Gardner

Public Justice Center

Danny Greenberg

Experience Justice

Alan Houseman

National Equal justice Library

Earl Johnson

Western Center on Law and Poverty

Ainat Margalit

ABA SCLAID

Clare Pastore

USC Gould School of Law

Debi Perluss

Equal justice leader/Consultant

Rasheedah Phillips

PolicyLink

Hazel Remesch

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Anjana Samant

ACLU

Andrew Scherer

New York Law School

Radhika Singh

NLADA

Jayne Tyrrell

Consultant

David Udell

National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham University School of Law

Natalece Washington

NACC